Two terrorists sentenced to 23 and 35 years in prison
Amad Agbar, who stabbed 4 people in Tel Aviv a year and a half ago, receives 25 years in jail; Palestinian who stabbed two police officers including Tzipi Yaakobian in Jerusalem’s old city two years ago gets 35 years.
Agbar, was convicted under a plea bargain for two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery. He attacked his victims with his belt buckle and a cutter tool.
The amended indictment said that Agbar had decided to kill Jews and planned to be gunned down or arrested at the scene, and become a Shahid—a hero.
The court has also determined that Agbar will compensate each victim with NIS 50,000.
Judge Raanan Ben Yosef, said in a verdict that, “the defendant went on a well planned killing spree in order to kill Jews. He injured four people just because they were Jewish. There are aggravating circumstances—a nationalist motive.”
“The defendant gravely undermined the value of respecting human life, and national security,” said Ben Yosef, and added that “the fact that he used his sharp belt buckle as a weapon is not an extenuating circumstance, he was aiming at the neck of his victims,” he stressed.
In December of 2016 Agbar had decided to commit a stabbing in the Dead Sea region, where he thought there would be many Jews. For that he bought a knife in Nablus and went to Jericho, and from there took a taxi to the Dead Sea.
Agbar spoke to the taxi driver, who told him that during that season the beaches will not be crowded, which prompted the teenager to fear that he will be easily spotted and caught. He turned back and threw the knife away.
In March 2017 Agbar had decided to commit a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, and planned his visit to Israel using a tour agency that organizes day trips that allows a single-day entry permit to Israel. He studied the area using Google Maps. For the attack itself Agbar sharpened his belt buckle into a weapon that he could carry into Israel through the checkpoint.
On April 23, 2017, Agbar entered Israel with a day permit he had received, and left the group on the first stop in the Yarkon Park area. He started looking for possible victims.
Agbar then started walking towards the beach, and stabbed a 70-year-old man with his belt buckle. He kicked and punched him and then escaped.
He then entered a hotel lobby and took a cutter that he found on one of the tables. Agbar then entered an antique shop in the lobby, attempted to stab a woman in her neck and hurt her ear, and was then chased and attacked by the woman’s husband. The terrorist ran into a hotel employee who tried to stop Agbar but he stabbed the employee with the cutter he had found.
Agbar then tried to escape the hotel while wrestling his second victim’s husband, who was blocking the door. He then hit him, broke the glass door and escaped, but was arrested by police officers who waited outside.
The court has also sentenced Ayman al-Kurd, the terrorist who stabbed a police woman Tzipi Yaakobian and another police officer in Jerusalem’s old city two years ago, to 35 years in prison. Yaakobian was severely injured and was anesthetized and ventilated for weeks after the event. She remained disabled due to the attack.
Yaakobian spoke in court and told of the operation she had been through and her injuries, that left her disabled. “I have no sensation in my legs, back, chest. My arms are very, very weak,” she told the court.
After being hospitalized for a year and returning home, thousands of people contributed money through a massive crowdfunding campaign, in order to make the former police woman’s house accessible for her new needs.
